A Serpent Born
by Becks
Summary: Sequel to True Dragon - Dealing with the possible ending of the wizarding world and the heir to Slytherin
1. To Be Or Not To Be .........

Ahem, threats and promises aside, here is the sequal!  
  
  
"To be or not to be, that is the question…"  
  
He managed to tune out, the fact that Hermoine and Ama were at the moment trying to outdo each other in a Shakespeare quoting competition showed the depths that they were falling to, Hermoine shouldn't have agreed to stay for the holidays, to 'keep Ama and Harry Company' it was Christmas, she should have gone to her family. Even Ron had gone.  
  
Ama and he had stayed, she had laughed about it but he'd read the melancholy in those purple eyes. He could remember the statement without any difficulty.  
  
' it's different for us Harry, you don't have a family worth mentioning, and mine isn't mentioned if people can help it'  
  
The laughter had been brittle, her eyes had been watching Draco a table and half the hall away. He didn't sit with them at meals, that sort of inter house mingling just wasn't the done thing. The fact that they shared a bedroom most nights didn't seem to come into it, Draco had been willing to face down the entire school for her, and now it seemed he was trying to slip like quick sliver back into his earlier place.  
  
He had the idea that the Slytherin was going to find out soon that he was now a square peg, and trying to fit into his round hole was soon going to become more and more uncomfortable. But for now he and Ama were here, with Hermoine, who it seemed had run out of quotes and was suggesting another game.   
  
Ama looked restless, he watched her shake her head and walk across the common room to the window, the sun was setting, then he realised, two days after Christmas, the December full moon. Standing he walked to the silent silver haired girl who had stormed into their lives at the beginning of September.  
  
" It won't be so bad, we know the drill"  
  
She turned to look at him, her eyes were less bruised but they still held that aura of pain. He suspected that time would dim it, but it would never be erased, her mouth quirked a little at the corners and she wrapped her arms around her waist.  
  
"I know, I was just, thinking"  
  
He let his eyebrows drift up in question, but he wasn't surprised. At night she would excuse her preoccupation with the excuse that she was counting the stars, it was times like these that he understood Hermoines muttered threats against Malfoy, there, he was calling him Malfoy in his head again. Keeping mental distance. His eyebrow trick had gotten a response again, he'd copied it from professor Snape, the answers he got out of his Niece were amazing.   
  
"I'm worried Harry, I'm eighteen on twelfth night"  
  
Nodding he let her know that he was still listening, she was going to have a birthday, which was nice, now he had a date December 31st but he had an idea that this was going to be an important fact.  
  
"I reached sexual maturity as a human on my thirteenth birthday, it pulled me into the first full change of my life"  
  
He nodded again, he had the idea that she was giving him a background for a reason.  
  
"I had my first experience of sex when I was a child so the first and second point of change had occurred the wrong way around, there are three changes according to my mother"  
  
Feeling his eyes open wide he kept his mouth shut, her mother, Snape's sister, both of them had been experiments, which left him with some interesting suppositions.  
  
"The third will be my sexual maturity as a Draco Malyfantus, on my eighteenth birthday"  



	2. Too Many Changes, Too Little Time

*G* This parts exclusivley for Just Silver and Mrrrisa for the lovely comments on True Dragon, i hope you like this just as much!  
  
  
Harry had the sudden idea that maybe what was coming next was going to be more than a little disturbing. Her eyes were a sudden darkness he could almost see the stars outside in them, the sudden resemblance to Snape was amazing, he wondered for the first time who she resembled more, her father or her mother.  
  
She took a deep breath and met his eyes, and he saw a silent tear make its way down her cheek, moving southwards until it fell off of her chin, in the silence as it splashed to the floor she spoke.  
  
"If I was a normal dragon it would be the time when I either chose or affirmed my life mate,"  
  
Her mouth quirked in a feeble attempt at a smile.  
  
"But as you see, he's not here, so I have to take the second choice, and there's the problem"   
  
Her felt Hermoine come up and stand next to him, probably drawn by curiosity but he couldn't pull his eyes from Ama's face she looked as if all the fires of hell were chasing her. This from the girl who had blown the doors off of the great hall with a motion of her hand, then she sighed and spoke again.  
  
"I need to make a blood hunt, I need to chase down something and kill it, in human form without the use of my magic. Otherwise I'll do it as a dragon and the thing I'll hunt will be human"  
  
Harry truly wasn't sure what to say, what could you say, hearing an in drawn breath from beside him he almost smiled, it seemed Hermoine didn't have any problems.  
  
"We can sort it out, Hagrid will help, and when Draco comes back I'll beat him to within an inch of his life"  
  
Ama had been smiling her eyes lightening back to a dark lavender until that last remark, he almost saw the flash of silver that lit her pupils, her definitely felt the rise in the temperature of the air surrounding her. He instinctively spoke.  
  
"She doesn't mean it Ama, its just that she's angry for him not being here when you need him"  
  
The unspoken, so am I stayed that way, unspoken and Ama calmed down, although the dorm was now unpleasantly warm, she flushed, the pale rose colour creeping up her face making her look less albino than she normally did.  
  
"Sorry 'moine, its just, my temper where Draco is concerned is a little extreme"  
  
Hermoine nodded  
  
"I suppose someone threatening to thrash Ron might grab me the same way, its not a problem"   
  
They both smiled at each other and he shook his head, it was amazing to think that these two hadn't known each other for years, Ama seemed to have managed the impossible, she'd gotten Hermoine to slack off of work, and between the three of them he had thought they were teaching Ama to laugh again. But her rare giggles had disappeared with Malfoy.   
  
She wasn't angry with him, so they shouldn't be, but they were. He shook his head and summoned up a grin, professor Lupin would be looking for them, between he and Ama, they were learning more about duelling than they thought was possible. He wanted to ask questions before today's session.  
  
"Go change Ama, we've got a dungeon session soon"  
  
A sudden smile came in full force setting her eyes to dancing.  
  
"Ah yes, can't wait, you did bring some muggle stuff? Jeans and a shirt?"  
  
He nodded and watched her disappear up the stairs towards her dorm before turning to Hermoine. Her brown eyes were simmering, she wasn't angry with Ama though, or she would have been protesting the session, duelling required a clear head.   
  
"What is it 'moine"  
  
She didn't pretend to misunderstand, that was Hermoine to a tee  
  
"That bastard, how does she put up with it, if I was going out with him I'd have killed him by now, let alone kicked him out of bed"  
  
He shrugged but he was thinking, he'd done a lot of that this year, thinking, he had realised early on that he got into a lot less trouble if he thought things through first without leaping into danger.  
  
"She blames herself I think, for Malfoy's childhood, whatever happened to him after she left, as if she could have stopped it"  
  
Hermoine shook her head and started for the stairs.  
  
"I wouldn't care, now is now, and she needs support more than Malfoy does"  
  
And then she was gone and Harry was left by himself.  
  
"Maybe, maybe not 'moine, but she needs to forgive herself, before the forgiveness freely granted will sink in"  
  
Shaking his head he moved towards his own dorm, too much study was making him introspective, he'd have to play some quidditch soon or he'd end up like Hermoine, all work and no play made Harry a dull boy.  



	3. Duelling Destiny

With Much Thanks to Just Silver who again gives the nicest comments :) to peopole like @*@*@*@* please read True Dragon before making comments, then the story will make sense, unless of course you want to leave your mail address and talk about it with me?  
  
  
  
She could see the darkness of the dungeons. It sounded more than strange but it was true, it was the sort of darkness that clings and holds. A conjured gloom. In the centre of it all stood Dumbledore, she had been expecting Lupin, so of course he was a surprise, but not too bad a one.  
  
Harry and Hermoine were warm presence's at her back as she looked into shadowed blue eyes, she wondered sometimes if she was the only one that saw the shades there. Memories, the depths of darkness to which one can sink and still believe in good.  
  
"Amaris, I need to talk to Harry"  
  
Her brow rose but she stepped aside  
  
"Of course, if you need me I shall be warming up"  
  
She crossed the floor in a fluid movement and began a flashing series of gymnastic rhythms that drew the eye almost irresistibly. Harry turned to Dumbledore the question written in his eyes, it was answered before he even spoke it.  
  
"I need you to do something for me Harry"  
  
He didn't even have to think, he nodded, even if Ama didn't trust Dumbledore he could, the man had saved his life before this. Dumbledore smiled, it touched the depths of his eyes bringing a twinkle to life there that had been absent for some time.  
  
"It has to be either you or miss Granger, and I feel that she isn't best equipped to search for the person I need you to find"  
  
Hermoine, not best equipped, good thing she was stretching against one of the walls or he could have been in for an implosion of temper later, instead he let a smile creep onto the corner of his mouth before nodding. If there was one thing you learnt from being around Ama it was the value of silence.  
  
"The person I need you to find Harry is the apparent to Salazar Slytherin"  
  
He felt the muscles around his eyes tighten as they widened behind his glasses before he flicked his gaze to Ama.  
  
"Sir, wouldn't Ama be the best person to ask"  
  
Dumbledore's eyebrows lifted in surprise, well perhaps not real surprise but it was well feigned.  
  
"And why would I do that Harry?"  
  
He blushed at the slight edge of irritation in the headmasters tone, but carried on regardless of disapproval.   
  
"Well the last Heir of Slytherin was Tom Riddle, who is Lord Voldemort. Who's her dad, which would make her logically the heir of Slytherin"  
  
A smile spread across the headmasters cherub like countenance, and the twinkle in his eyes became more pronounced.  
  
"Excellent logic Harry, if this wasn't so serious I'd give points to Gryffindor for such an answer, why don't you ask her? There'll be a pass for the Knight Bus on your bed though, just in case you need to leave the school grounds to look"   
  
Then the headmaster was gone, no puff of smoke or sound of movement he was just gone. If he hadn't known that dissaparating within the grounds of Hogwarts was impossible he would have suspected Dumbledore of doing so. With a shake of his head he moved over to join the other two as Professor Lupin bounded down the stairs.  
  
"Sorry I'm late, Serverus had to see me about something"   
  
Ama nodded as if she'd expected such a thing, there were lines of strain around her mouth that at nearly eighteen no one should possess.  
  
"He was warning you to stay out of the woods at full moon"  
  
Lupin looked slightly surprised, and worried at her flattened tone before he nodded, then he gestured to the stone circle that had in ages past been worked into the bedrock of Hogwarts for the purpose of formal duelling.  
  
"Harry, I want you an Hermoine to work out against each other, we'll watch and shout tips as best we can, then I think Ama's actually convinced Serverus to work through a duel with her for instructional purposes, god knows how."  
  
He had to smile, after Ama had miscalculated a shot and scorched off Lupin's eyebrows he had been more reluctant to work through instructional duels with her. Professor Snape would either be in for a shock or would shock them.  
  
'Moine was waiting for him in the centre of the circle, frizzy hair fastened back into a French braid, he knew Ama had to have helped her with that, their clothes were identical, black tee shirts and black jeans. Ama had explained it to them when they had watched her workouts and asked for lessons.   
  
' My form of duelling is about staying alive, not prissy points of honour, or wizardly showing off, it also keeps you moving, keeps you alert. Its why the Sorceresses clothes are so different, you can't, move, in robes.' He caught Hermoines eye and made a short bow, all that was proscribed before holding her eyes, watching the dark depths for her first move, today they were using, live rounds, real wands and real curses, if they didn't move fast enough they were going to get hurt.  
  
***  
  
She watched them circle with a slight feeling of satisfaction, they had a studied wariness that showed respect for the power they were handling. Power should always be granted respect. A presence at her shoulder, Serverus, she acknowledged her uncle with an inclination of her head but kept her eyes on Harry.   
  
Hermoines bolt hit him on the shoulder of his wand hand, she saw him wince but he didn't drop his wand, she gave him positive points for that, negative for not getting out of the way. Hermoine moved in a flash, she was pleased but only slightly, she was grading Harry not Hermoine and neither of them were as fast as she would have liked.   
  
Lupin had told her that she was too harsh, expected too much, but that was the way she had learnt, to be soft was to die. She didn't want either of her friends to ever duel in earnest, but if they did she wanted them to win.  
  
Harry moved, snake strike fast, and kicked Hermoines legs out from under her and put his wand and hers to either side of her throat, before looking up, she raised her eyebrows.  
  
"Very good, now what would you curse her with if you really were out to kill her, Hermoine stay still and silent, you're dead"  
  
Harry's eyes were blanked with consideration and then something flashed in them, a germ of an idea, that apparently agreed with the part of him that made him a Gryffindor.  
  
"I'd use Imperius"  
  
She raised her eyebrows, it was a good answer but had be given it for the right reasons,  
  
"Why?"  
  
He didn't even have to stop to consider.  
  
"She obviously wants me dead for some reason, I could find that out, and unlike murder by duelling suicide isn't a crime"  
  
She grinned and started to clap even as he helped Hermoine up from the floor.  
  
"Perhaps you should have been a Slytherin, that was a rather brilliantly self serving answer"  
  
He bowed, there was mockery there as Hermoine started to heal his shoulder with a muttered apology.  
  
"I've been listening to your lectures Ama"  
  
She smacked his shoulder and motioned to her uncle.  
  
"Shall we?"  
  
***  
  
He could see from the way the pair of them moved into the circle that this duel was going to be different from the one he'd just fought with Hermoine, he looked at professor Lupin who looked more than a little concerned and then back to the circle.  
  
Professor Snape had pulled his robe off over his head to reveal dark coloured jeans, not black but a deep shade of grey and a white silk shirt, Ama was smiling as if in memory, he actually looked clean. His hair was tied back and didn't have its normal oil slick complexion and there was a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth even as they completed their ritual bows.   
  
It seemed that Ama was having a good affect on her uncle, even if he was just as hard on her as the rest of them in class. Ama moved like greased lightning on roller skates, watching her always explained to him why she got so impatient with him and Hermoine, she wanted them to be fast, what surprised him was that Snape was just as fast.  
  
It could be a family thing, the thought crossed his mind as Snape fended off a variant of the full body bind, something Ama did wrapped it around one of the stones, she stopped dead still for a moment and murmured something under her breath before making a throwing gesture with her hand.   
  
A whirlwind sprang out of nowhere, he could feel the air pressure around them dropping rapidly, from the strain on the faces in the circle they were both battling for control of the air mass, then their eyes met and a smile flashed simultaneously across both faces and the miniature tornado disappeared.  
  
Snape crossed the room and pulled Ama into a hug which she returned and they looked across at him and Hermoine, but it was Snape that spoke.  
  
"and that's how you concede a truce"  
  
Ama nodded and stepped out of the circle walking slightly stiffly, she wasn't sweating but their was a wild look in her eyes as if the nearness of the full moon had rocked her control. He thanked professor Lupin, Snape had already disappeared in his normal way, Ama was waiting on the stairs, she looked at Hermoine.  
  
"Shower?"  
  
Hermoine nodded enthusiastically and he spoke quickly.  
  
"After can I speak to you both? Its important"  
  
Hermoine looked intrigued Ama just looked slightly tired  
  
"Okay, my room, its private"  
  
He had no problem with that and nodded, before turning for the prefects bathroom, Ron had given him the password for Christmas, part of his present. The time alone would let him think on how to ask his questions.  



	4. Reviewing the Situation

Thanks again to Just Silver, Harry personalityless ! oh no, just you wait ;) How are you redundant my dear i need somone who reviews and makes my writing worthwhile ! luv ya hun  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The view was beautiful, a sculpted waterfall tinkled musically into a lush pool surrounded by the darkness of trees, there were flickers of movement there in the darkness between, but he didn't see the wood for the trees. He didn't see the wood at all.  
  
"Stop sulking, it ill becomes you"  
  
Her voice was light and musical, and had been much loved, was much loved, you couldn't stop loving someone just because they hated you. He looked at his mother out of the corner of his eye, her hair shining platinum, hints of white blazing from the light that poured from the window. The double image he saw was painful, almost as much so as the dreams he endured night after night.  
  
"I can't seem to help it mother, perhaps you can advise me?"  
  
Sarcasm was rife within his tone, he wasn't sulking, not as such, he was depressed, almost suicidally so. He had only meant to stay for a week and Christmas day, then he'd meant to leave but now he was trapped in a web of silk and steel.  
  
"Draco Daemon Sylvanus Malfoy, you will speak more respectfully to me, I am your mother!"  
  
Another sigh wended its way out of him and he turned fully away from the window to look at his mother, the spells of beauty that she had used to keep herself looking more than lovely had taken there toll she was slender and her skin was beyond translucent, the veins could be seen pulsing at her temples. Any other woman would have been less than middle aged now, she and his father had been young parents, his father still attracted women, his affairs were legendary.  
  
"I want to leave mother, I need to leave"  
  
There was compassion just for a moment in the rainwater blue of her eyes, then it was gone as if extinguished, it probably had been, by a life serving the darkness, he wondered, if she had expected his father to save her from her own darkness only to stumble neck deep into his. Ah well, that wasn't his concern, Amaris was.  
  
"That's impossible for the moment Draco, your father wants to talk to you"  
  
He felt himself shaking his head and stopped the movement ruthlessly, he had never liked involuntary gestures since that fateful day that one of his had had Amaris sent away. He watched his mother leave the room and then fell backwards into the memory.  
  
They were playing, simple games for wizard children, well, Malfoy children. Using their magic's to play tag, invisibly. Of course things had gotten broken but they were nine years old, things broke. He had been searching for Amaris and had let his shielding slip for a moment next to the shattered remains of one of his mothers vases. Most children don't know the difference between Ming and carnival faring's, he certainly hadn't then a hand had descended on his shoulder.  
  
He had know instantly who it was, he looked up into his fathers eyes cold and dark as the December sky. There hadn't been any words, just the look that promised death and destruction followed by the appearance of a crop in his fathers hand. It had been an involuntary movement, the low whimper in his throat, his father never hit him long or hard, but it hurt.  
  
Then their had been a presence at his side, and Amaris's oddly adult voice had spoken.  
  
"Its not his fault, Lucius, Sir, I broke the vase"  
  
Another involuntary movement, the shake of his head, she hadn't broken the vase, and it would hurt him more in another way if she took the beating for him. It would ache in his chest somewhere above his left ribs. It always did when she got hurt, as if something inside him hated himself for not saving her.  
  
His father had looked at both of them and had casually back handed him across the face, he had almost felt something within her snap. When the blurs had cleared from his vision she had been limed in flickering, living flame, and his father had looked afraid.  
  
She had been punished for that lapse into temper, they had sent her away and their memories told him of the horrors she had endured, some of which she seemed to push away whenever he tried to see them. And he had been punished was still being punished, he knew now what an encumbrance he was. A mother who despised him for ruining her figure and social life and a father who couldn't accept the fact that his son wasn't going to follow him into darkness.  
He shook the cobwebs of memory away, and began to build the spell, chanting in a low sonorous tone. Apparition was hard and he wanted to be within the boundaries of Hogwarts by the night after tomorrow.  
  
***  
  
Hermoine was settled on her bed next to Harry and she watched them both from her window seat, the sun was on the verge of setting and she could feel a tight itch in her blood, fire in her veins would have been easier to live with. Harry looked nervous as if there was something he wanted to say but wasn't sure of how to say it, he squirmed for a moment more before blurting it out in a rush.  
  
"DumbldoresaskedmetofindtheheirtoSlytherin"  
  
She blinked a few times and then felt a smile creep onto the corner of her mouth.  
  
"Slowly Harry, some of us hear at a normal rate"  
  
He flushed pale skin showing the rush of blood in almost painful detail to her heightened senses, then his mouth tilted up at both corners and he adjusted his glasses.  
  
"Dumbledore's asked me to find the heir to Slytherin"  
  
Hermoine pinched the bridge of her nose before commenting in a dry and slightly distracted voice.  
  
"That's heir of Slytherin"  
  
Harry looked at her and then looked at the ceiling before miming prayer, she almost laughed but she was trying to remember what Cassiopeia had been rambling about in her final trance before she had died. Cassiopeia had been a rare true seer, and the visions had been painful. That was it, she had it, for a moment she thanked god for the gift of a good memory for events.  
  
"I have a little information"  
  
Harry looked at her and arched an eyebrow it was an oddly Malfoy like inflection, she ignored the pang of longing she felt to listen as he spoke.  
  
"I thought it might have been you"  
  
She felt her eye's widening before a choke of laughter escaped her and she shook her head.  
  
"I'm afraid not, but a friend of mine gave me a prophecy when she was dying, I haven't been able to remember all of it until now. But that's the way of prophecies, they never show up until you most need them"  
  
She watched the tension build in Hermoines eyes and almost smiled, she was so eager to learn, Harry almost had the same expression but there was a darkness behind it. A need to succeed, she had been right earlier he would have been a good Slytherin.  
  
"It was said like this"  
  
Taking a deep breath she began.  
  
"The Heirs run in patterns appearing when least needed.   
In peace search for the lion rampant on the field  
In times of knowledge search for the raven amongst knowledge seeded  
In times of immovable objects search for the badger one who never yields  
And finally in times of war where treachery is rife   
search for the heir to the serpent born who will end the strife"  
  
She winced slightly.   
  
"The poetry's bad but the information's all there, and one other thing, the heirs are always Muggle born according to our chroniclers. Its an oddity but it's the one holding factor between them all"  
  
The light in Harry's eyes seemed to glow for a moment as he took all that she had said in, and the he half smiled. She tried to but the first rays of the moon were cresting the horizon, she waved a hand in languorous farewell.  
  
"Now get out and do some work on your own"  
  
Her eyes remained riveted on the door as they left and then with a gentle sight she fell backwards and gave into the moons call.  



	5. Dreams and Visions

Thanks To Just Silver, babe you are spectacular this story needs more reviewers like you and to Co§mette Peters :) is it? thanks!  
  
  
  
  
Blood, so much blood pouring through her veins and from the sliced arteries at her wrists, each drop that touched the earth seemed to crackle with eldritch fire. Each pulsing red wave seemed to build the defences of the place that haunted her sleep. The dream couldn't be escaped so she wouldn't try, black eyes watching her with a worried intensity, she had promised, promised, something important. The walls flashed higher and higher and her vision grew dimmer, then hands were at her wrists covered in her blood, a bond without end.   
  
"Miriam, wake up, you're going to be late again"  
  
She slammed out of the dream and into her bedroom, the warden was sitting on the edge of the bed a look of concern on her face, ebony skin shining in the light of the fluorescent bulb in the supermarket lamp.  
  
"Nightmares again?"  
  
Her eyes focused on the swirling geometric patterns of her bedspread as she nodded, a warm hand touched the top of her head but she flinched away, she sometimes got flashes of the future from people it had led her to shy away from human contact. She heard the woman sigh, social services tried to care but they weren't very good at reaching out to people who didn't want to be reached out to.   
  
Shifting the sweat sticky sheets away from her skin she slipped out of bed, she slept in her underwear. A legacy of the times when she was smaller that she had wanted to be able to run fast, and dress as quickly as a ferret down a rabbit hole. The intake of breath from behind didn't surprise her, she was used to it, she walked into the bathroom to brush out her hair and saw the head looking at her from her shoulder.  
  
It was her brand, she sometimes believed that it was alive, because those eyes seemed to track, it was why she wore high necked tops with long sleeves. A long green snake coiled in looping patterns from her bottom rib across her back and finished with the head on her shoulder. It was no crude design, it was a work of art, and had been there as long as she could remember.   
  
That was why she wasn't adopted, and at the venerable age of eighteen intended to leave the social security circuit and get a job the moment she left college. There had always been mutters about extreme child cruelty, that the tattoo must have been done the moment she was born to have grown with her the way it had. That it must have been agony, she couldn't have said, if she had been a baby then she wouldn't have remembered. All she knew was despite being branded as property she didn't belong to anyone.   
  
She pulled the black polo neck over her head and looked out, what a time for a retake, three days after Christmas, but she'd go, she needed her A levels to succeed and she was determined to be her own person, to survive whatever her nightmares said.  
  
When she walked back out into her room it was deserted, the warder was gone. She deftly snagged her jean jacket and stuffed a few pens into the pocket and walked out. Through the corridors painted that uniform shade of porridge white and then out onto the street. She looked up into the clouds, a storm was brewing, she'd always been able to tell. Just what she needed, rain, she quickened her pace and put her head down even as the first cold grey drops of rain hit the pavement.   
  
***  
  
  
He watched as the final drop of pavement splashing rain faded into blackness, years of divination practice and the right potions courtesy of Ama and it was amazing what you could find. The area of London was one close to the Dursleys house, they had moved to be closer to their beloved son while he remained at school.  
  
Now the only problem would be getting there, he looked out of the window. It was still dark out although the horizon was beginning to redden, Ama had reported herself in around half an hour ago so the grounds were safe.   
  
Looking across at his bed he reached for his wand and pointed it at the Knight Buspass.  
  
"Accio pass"  
  
The levitation worked as fluidly as it always had, but his reflex in catching had gotten better since the duelling lessons had begun. He shook his head for a moment before pulling a pair of black jeans and a black sweater out of his trunk. He normally wore them under his going home clothes but tonight they'd let him walk around early morning London without arousing suspicions.  
  
For a moment he glanced around the quietened bedroom before pulling a quill off of the desk under the window, he looked about and produced a sheet of parchment and the a simple note.  
  
' Guys,  
I know where I'm going, I'll be fine, I'll also be back.  
  
Harry'  
  
It would send Hermoine into absolute fits but it was nice to do that occasionally. It kept her on her toes. Leaving the message where the others would be sure to see it, then he pocketed his wand and the bus ticket and pulling on the shimmering silver of his invisibility cloak stepped out of the dorm.  
  
Moments later he was cracking the side door, the grounds looked different under the early morning clouds, everything seemed to be still even the birds were a bare rustling in the bushes. A few minutes walk brought him inside the bounds of Hogsmede and he stuck out his wand.  
  
The Knight Bus made its normal flashing entrance and he climbed on board, the conductor looked tired and waved warily to the back row of beds when Harry showed him his pass. He wasn't altogether sure whether he preferred this sort of greeting to the one the younger conductor had given at the beginning of his third year. But he could live with it, he lay back against the pillows content, they would wake him when he got there.  



	6. A Question Of Who and What

To everyone who is reading along and NOT reviewing, i hope your enjoing it :) to everyone who does review...... Just Silver i looooooooove you ;) please keep it up  
  
  
  
The sun was well up in London when he arrived there, in the wilds of Scotland it would still be somewhere in the dimness of dawn. That was the problem with England in the winter time, it was so slow to brighten.  
  
He looked up at the road sign, St Martins, this was where the college was, he was sure of it. He remembered one of his brief breaks with the Dursleys, they had been whittering on and on about this place, about how it was good that Dudley wouldn't have to go there. It was one of the few times in his life he'd actually managed to feel some sympathy for Dudley Dursley.  
  
Three or four people walked out of the doors, and there was the one he had been sent to look for, the heir to Slytherin. She was pretty much a nonentity, but then when he thought about it, Tom Riddle had been so before his untimely death as Lord Voldemort and his resurrection.   
  
Perhaps it was life's way of hiding something special, Ama was only pretty because she was startling, Hermoine was average, All of the special people he had met in life were less than ground breakingly beautiful. On the other hand people like Lucius Malfoy were astoundingly handsome, as was Draco, and they tended to be shady at least.   
  
He shook his head and began to walk forwards, and the stopped. How do you introduce yourself to a total stranger and ask them to come with you to save a world that doesn't exist unless you're a part of it? He continued to watch her as she stopped to adjust her jacket, her hair was long and dark brown, confined in a braid, it would reach perhaps the base of her spine, long hair seemed to be in for those that could manage it.   
  
She was perhaps his height or a little shorter, life seemed to be picking on wizards in the height department, but then he was short, she'd be about average for a woman. She started to walk down the steps, she was almost overblown in the fact that she was curvy, nothing at all like he'd expected from that brief look through the crystal ball.  
  
Oh well, he was going to have to try it, he walked across the path until he was standing behind her and then cleared his throat.  
  
"Umm excuse me, could I, ah, have a word?"  
  
She turned and looked at him, her eyes were large in her face a pure deep green that looked hard and sharp.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
Now here was a problem, how do you say to someone, I need you to come with me to a school full of wizards and help us out, I don't know why I'm just doing as I'm told. Yes and then she'd calmly lead him to a bench and call the nearest mental institution.  
  
"I don't suppose you believe in prophecy do you?"  
  
He couldn't believe he'd come out with that, it was like a corny chat up line. Do you believe in fate? But her eyes had softened slightly and her brows had risen and she had an expression that said she was listening.  
  
"Perhaps, but then what's that got to do with you?"  
  
He could feel his own eyes widening behind his glasses, the fact that she was willing to admit to a belief at all was strange, let alone in that calm tone. Then he though back on himself, in his first year at Hogwarts he had been almost pathologically shy, she had that same sort of tone of voice, although he suspected her's didn't come from shyness.   
  
Her head had cocked to one side and she was watching him as he'd often seen Hagrids pets doing, as if she wasn't sure if he was lunch or not, then she seemed to come to some sort of decision and she reached out and put her fingers against his face.  
  
A sudden pain flashed through his head, centring on his scar, for a second his vision was black as it had been the day that Crabbe had tried to hex him in DADA class, then he was looking back at her and into eyes that looked almost blurred and then they seemed to focus on him.  
  
"Very well then, lead on"  
  
For a second he was all at sea and then he realised that with a touch she had had some sort of vision, he needed some answers and fast.  
  
"What do you know?"  
  
He suddenly felt hunted as if there were eyes on his back, and from the way she stirred she felt the same way.  
  
"You're a wizard, and you and some other people need me, I can trust you"  
  
The sentence was stilted as if they were the only facts she had, but he was impressed, according to the history of magic that he was studying for his NEWTS that sort of talent only came up once every few decades, and it was always linked to strong natural prophesying. His nod though was quick and strained those eyes felt as though they were getting closer and closer.  
  
"All true, my names Harry, and we do need you, but right now I think we need to get out of here"  
  
She nodded, agreement writ plain on her face.  
  
"It's a good plan, but I think you may have left it just a little late."  
  
He turned, the robes and masks you would recognise anywhere in the wizarding world these last three years, Death Eaters weren't common by any stretch but they were there and had been on the rise ever since the summer of Voldemorts return.   
  
"Get out of the way, Potter, we want the girl, our master will let you live just this once in return for the favour"  
  
He watched her face out of the corner of his eye as her eyebrows rose and she made a questioning movement with her hand.  
  
"It's the problem with being famous, fans always want what you've got"  
  
The voice he used was flippant, and straight out of the Malfoy collection of irritating drawls, too much time with Ama and Draco seemed to be bad for a persons sense of humour. But she had a slight smile on her face, and to his surprise it sent chills up his spine.  
  
"I'll tell you one thing for nothing, I'm not going anywhere with the hooded hoards"  
  
He had to restrain himself or he would have snickered at the humour, the thing that killed his mirth was the fact that wands had appeared in both of the Death Eaters hands, he pulled his own slowly out of the pocket of his jeans.  
  
"Behind me please"  
  
A small smile had appeared on her face and her eyes were burning like devils fire.  
  
"Oh I think not"  
  
She made a half kneeling motion and came up with a flick knife in her hand, the way she opened it with a practised twist of the wrist showed that she had considerable knowledge of how to use it. Which was fine but this going to be a magic battle and, and there was a member of the friendly local constabulary walking around the corner. He jerked his head and drew her attention to him.  
  
Her knife suddenly skidded along the pavement and she screamed a high pitched sound of distress. The policeman stopped looking at the traffic and came for them at a run. Harry slid his wand into his pocket and watched the two Death Eaters with a sort of nonchalant ease.  
  
For a second they seemed torn, probably between trying it on and running. Running won and they apparated with a practised ease that left him faintly jealous. The policeman reached their side and he looked across at the young Heir. She had mock tears streaming down her cheeks, he knew they were mock because she threw him a wink that was more than a little suspicious.  
  
"Oh I'm so glad you came, I thought we were going to be robbed"  
  
The accent she had suddenly came from the best part of London, not the accent less voice she had used earlier. He wondered briefly which one was real an then turned his attention back to the best piece of acting he had seen since Ron convinced his mother that a Gnome had gotten into the stew.   
  
"I was coming back from an exam, yes I'm in placement at Laurent House, Yes my parents have only recently passed away and the relatives are all dead, I'll have…. But that doesn't matter, him oh he's my boyfriend, no he's not from Laurent House, he lives in Camden, no I don't think I'll press charges…."  
  
While that was happening he scooped up the knife and pocketed it, the policeman was soon on his was, helmet fairly glowing with praise, and she was waiting.  
  
"I suspect I wont be at The House when they make further enquires?"  
  
Her voice was flat and accent less again, he wanted to ask but wouldn't, if she wanted to be anonymous then who was he to stop her. But he shook his head in answer to her question.  
  
"No, that was quick thinking there by the way"  
  
She smiled, her cheeks gaining some colour, she wasn't sallow by any rate but she had been a very pale peach for a moment there.  
  
"Thanks, you don't live in homes for as long as I have without learning how to lie fast and furiously"  
  
That would explain the references to 'The House' well he now knew two people who's childhood ranked up there with his, he gently removed his wand and stuck it out.   
  
"You will explain those people who attacked us?"  
  
He shook his head as the Knight Bus popped into existence.  
  
"No, but I know a man who can"   



	7. Introspection and Great Expectations

To Just Silver :0) hehe Harry will never be y fave im afraid its Malfoys forever !  
  
  
  
The boy, Harry, seemed to be doing more than a little magic. It should have shocked her, or at least alarmed her but it didn't. The moment she'd touched him she'd felt something within her click into place. Not romantically, any woman interested in him romantically was going to get a terrible shock, but as if she had finally come home, tingling warmth had rushed through her system like lightning.  
  
She looked up, suddenly as the bus stopped, a lake was spread out the late morning sun and above it, perched on what seemed to be a cliff was a huge castle. The conductor was talking to Harry.  
  
"I know you've got a pass, but what about her?"  
  
Harry sighed, it sounded as if he was being sincerely put upon.  
  
"How much?"  
  
The conductor smiled, it wasn't a particularly friendly smile but it was perhaps more friendly than the last ex juvie thirteen year old they had had at 'The House' she felt her entire body tense but the man just laughed.  
  
"20 Sickles 3 Knuts"  
  
She blinked twice, but the look on Harry's face was appreciative as he dipped into his pocket.  
  
"Do you people have built in radar for how much ready cash someone's got on him?"  
  
The conductor laughed again but raised his arm to point at the sign above the drivers booth. She followed the pointing finger and almost laughed at what was said.  
  
'The fare is never more than you can afford. But always more than you want to pay'  
  
The moment Harry had poured the last of the coins into the drivers hands, the door clicked open, Harry and the man exchanged what sounded like pleasant insults before they climbed off of the bus, when it had vanished Harry seemed to be struck by a thought.  
  
"Was anyone expecting you? Back from the exam?"  
  
She thought of the warders, the constant stream of unfamiliar children, as shifting as the dreams she had, and then of the feeling the vision Harry had given her and shook her head.  
  
"No one important"  
  
For a second real understanding flashed into his eyes, as if he knew exactly what she was going through and then he half laughed before beginning the walk up to the school gates.  
  
"Another one to add to the Hogwarts collection of waifs and strays"  
  
"Hogwarts?"  
  
His face was perturbed for a moment and then it cleared.  
  
"I forgot, Muggle bred, this is Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the most famous school of its kind, ever"  
  
She looked up at the imposing castle and almost smiled, he was so proud of the school, as if he was a part of it. It must feel nice to belong, to somewhere, to someone. The sun flashed suddenly on one of the castle windows and she had a sudden intuitive flash.  
  
"Déjà vu"  
  
Harry's eyes shifted from the road to her, before he reached out as if to steady her, she flinched back, but smiled to counter the affect, he frowned but spoke anyway.  
  
"Déjà vu? Why?"  
  
Her head cocked to one side, he didn't understand, she looked up at the castle again she got the same flash, as if she'd walked this route before and there was someone beside her. She craned her neck, knowing it was useless, she always got the same thing, that same laughing flash of eyes. Harry was beside her now his mouth open as if to ask, she raised her hand to forestall him.  
  
"I feel as if I've walked this road before with someone else, its one of my, my dreams"  
  
To her surprise he smiled.  
  
"You have true visions, I thought so"  
  
That this could be accepted here was somehow beyond her comprehension, but then it was magic, and magic existed. It was so close to the impossible that it skirted along the bounds of possibility. No wonder they'd managed to keep it secret, no one would believe it.  
  
As they walked closer to the lake shore Harry groaned, she looked up, silhouetted on the path were two women, one taller than she and the other shorter, the shorter girls hair caught silver flame in the sun light. Her entire body tensed and she went for the knife but Harry stopped her his hand hovering just over her arm.  
  
"They're friends, but I could be in for a thundering scold"  
  
Thundering scold sounded like something out of a gothic romance, she laughed the first rich pure sound she had produced.  
  
"I'm sure you deserve it"  
  
***  
  
Ama had been fretting all night and well past the dawn, when Hermoine had come into the deserted common room almost boiling over with fury, she had been relived, anything to keep her Drake out of her head. Obsessing was bad for you, she had been told that over and over again, but she couldn't help herself.   
  
Before he had left he had been on the retreat, as if the years of separation had let him forget the intensity of the bond they shared. He didn't want her in his head, and he didn't want her around him when he was in classes, so she'd let him go his own way, perhaps it was a mistake?  
  
Hermoine was going on and on about Harry's disappearance, she read the note and summoned a reassuring smile.  
  
"He'll be fine, he's all grown up now"  
  
Unlike a certain Malfoy I could mention, the problem with the spell bond they shared was that she couldn't be angry with him, she could feel the fact that he was confused, hurting inside in some way. So all she could do was wrap her end of the bond in steel and try to ignore it all. Hermoine was staring at her, she had been for a little while now, it just hadn't registered.  
  
"Stop it Ama"  
  
She felt both of her eyebrows go up in surprise, but Hermoine beat her to the punchline.  
  
"And don't say, 'stop what?' I want you to stop moping about Malfoy. Its going to start showing soon and we don't want you to humiliate yourself that way"   
  
So it had become obvious, it was a shame, she used to be able to hide anything, and then these annoying people had walked into her life.  
  
"You can't hide it when your dying inside"  
  
The quote seemed appropriate, although perhaps a little melodramatic, Hermoines eyes flashed and then a look that seemed to compound pity and understanding appeared in them.  
  
"Lets go for a walk, fresh air will do you, and me, good. Stop us thinking about the useless men in our lives"  
  
She had to smile, Hermoines sarcastic humour was a source of delight when you could get her out of study mode to use it. With a nod she stood up and motioned Hermoine to proceed out of the Gryffindor common room.  
  
They left the room in silence and hadn't spoken again until half way around the lake Hermoine spoke.  
  
"Well look what the cat dragged in"  
  
Harry was coming up the path with a girl beside him, they were about the same height but there the similarities ended, the girl was curvaceous in the extreme and her eyes were a deep crystal green, she was dressed as Harry was in black, except for the bright denim blue of her jacket.  
  
He looked up and a brief look of dismay registered on his face before he murmured something which caused the girl to laugh, a sound as rich and curved as the rest of her, then they both came up the path together.  
  
Hermoine was the first one to find her tongue,   
  
"Harry James Potter, where have you been?!"  
  
She choked back a laugh and placed her hand on Hermoines arm.  
  
"I think that's obvious 'Moine"  
  
Turning she faced the girl, seeing instantly the abstraction in her eyes, she'd seen it somewhere else, Cassiopeia, the heir was a seer, which was most probably a good thing. She let a smile slip onto her face softening her face.  
  
"I'm Amaris, please, just ignore these two, they're old friends and sometimes forget that the rest of us have manners"  
  
The girl didn't smile, but her eyes lightened to amusement, she had the idea that this girl didn't smile often.  
  
"I'm Miriam Salezer, who has been dragged here for no fixed reason, I don't suppose you know the man who's going to explain"  
  
She looked at Hermoine who was thoroughly berating Harry and sighed.  
  
"Your probably going to end up with Dumbledore, the headmaster and infernal busy body"  
  
It sounded biased so she thought explanations could be in order.  
  
"He and I don't get on, I think its familial prejudice"  
  
To her surprise despite her lame attempt at a joke Miriam looked slightly saddened.  
  
"Its good that you have a family"  
  
That started her into a laugh.  
  
"Hasn't he told you anything at all?"  
  
For a moment confusion stared back at her, only the sound of the pair squabbling and the cry of the mythical beasts at Hagrids cottage disturbing the stillness, then comprehension dawned.  
  
"The Hogwarts waifs and strays?"  
  
Trust Harry to manage to put it into succinct terms.  
  
"Exactly, Harry has no family, my father killed them in a fit of pique when we were about two years old"  
  
Shock showed just for a moment in Miriam's green eyes, she wondered if the girl knew how expressive those eyes were when the rest of her was so purposely blank, the she seemed to recover herself.  
  
"And you two are friends?"  
  
There were myriad questions within that question, how can he be your friend after what your father did, why does he like you ?is he really that forgiving? It was Harry that answered, not surprising considering his talent for being in the right place at the right time.  
  
"Of course, Ama is one of the gang, although she insists on bringing that obnoxious…."  
  
She put up her hand then, feeling the defensive heat starting, beyond her control, it was too close, she needed to stay calm. It was Miriam who made the observation.  
  
"Is it me, or did it just get warmer around here?"  
  
Her eyes flicked closed and she counted against the darkness, but it was Harry who spoke.  
  
"He's not back yet, is he?"  
  
No he's not back she wanted to be nasty, cruel in the extreme, but with Harry it was impossible he'd just take it in and understand, which was damning when you wanted to say something unforgivable. She opened her eyes and looked at Miriam's uncomprehending face, and realised there was a way to take out her pique, she reached out and touched her face.  



	8. Seeing A Little Too Much

To Just Silver who is very astute ;) A complete fic add to anyone who can identify the guy at the end of this chapter :)  
  
  
  
  
  
She didn't even have time to flinch before Amaris's hand touched her, the vision was instantaneous. A black dragon rampant against the full moon looking at her with feral desperate eyes, the same dragon bloodied and close to defeat keening over and over a sudden face, a white blonde boy, fine boned face and liquid sliver eyes the feeling of love and despair. And then that face, flickering red eyes and the scent of familiarity, father and tormentor both forever caught between the extremes of nature and nurture. The way she felt and the way she should go.  
  
Coming back to herself was like a jolt, touching a person had never given her such a strong feeling before. It had sent her to her knees and Amaris was standing over her, there was no regret in her eyes, no sorrow for the pain she had given, only flat understanding and necessity. In her face were those dragons eyes, the desperation was there flickering in the background, twinned with earthshattering control. Only one thought was in her head and it came out of her mouth without conscious intent.  
  
"I'm so sorry"  
  
That brought emotion into those bruise coloured eyes, before the girl turned and ran, Harry reached out a hand and recoiled as if the air around her burned, then she was gone, a silver flash of sadness and desperation.  
  
The other girl, Hermoine was trying to help her to her feet, but she shuffled backwards and pulled herself upwards.  
  
"What did I say?"  
  
Her words clashed with Hermoines.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
Harry it seemed was going to answer for both of them.  
  
"Miriam saw something, Amaris doesn't like sympathy, about anything, she's touchy that way, and this is the wring time of her life for her to get antsy"  
  
She wasn't sure what to say about that, the control in those eyes should have stopped any sort of nervousness or stress, but it seemed that Hermoine had more questions.  
  
"What did you see?"  
  
For a moment she was unsure, what could you tell it was as if she'd peered in and seen the girls soul. But perhaps these two could clear up the tangled vision, she'd never been able to tell anyone before, but these people knew, knew and believed.  
  
"I saw a dragon, with her eyes, and a boy with white hair, and a man with, red eyes, although the first and the last seem pretty much impossible"  
  
She shuddered, there had been such despair in the pictures such cold controlled pain. Harry was nodding though as if what she said made sense.  
  
"That's all right, Ama is the dragon, it's a long and mixed up story, the boy is Draco, who is probably going to get more of a telling off than I did when he gets his butt back here. The man with the nice glowing eyes is Ama's father, wonderful man, goes by the name of Lord Voldemort"  
  
Cocking her head to one side she thought on what he had told her.  
  
"This Draco, what……"  
  
"Do I hear my name being taken in vain?"  
  
A flash in Harry's eyes like fury and she looked over her shoulder to see a boy coming down the hill from the school. Not a boy, the boy. He was dressed in the same wizards robes as Hermoine but there was something about the cut of them that said not only had they been made for him but were very , very expensive. His hair was indeed white blonde it didn't even have that old ivory shade that most people with hair that colour possessed, it was like snow under sunlight.  
  
It was the eyes though that stopped her mid thought, they were wary and watchful and not at all the burning silver of her vision, they were more a tarnished pewter like a goblet that she'd seen once in a museum and under the layer of studied arrogance was a sort of brooding pain. Their eyes she realised, despite the difference in colour were very much alike.  
  
"Mmmm silence, wonderful way to greet someone who's had the hellish time I've had since I left"  
  
"you've had a hellish time, Malfoy I'm going….."  
  
Hermoine was cut off rather suddenly when Harry glared at her but not before the boys eyes had flashed murder, to her surprise he turned to her.  
  
"Another lamb to the slaughter?"  
  
She recognised the deep sarcasm in his tone and a smile crept into her eyes.  
  
"One of the Hogwarts waifs and strays?"  
  
The corner of his mouth curled up but there was no real amusement in his eyes, they looked almost two dimensional.  
  
"Only by connection my dear"  
  
The endearment was obviously copied from someone, the drawl wasn't quite his sarcasm, it was Hermoine that identified it.  
  
"A few weeks with your family and you even sound like your father"  
  
Pain, so quickly smothered that if she hadn't been looking right at him she would have missed it completely. He didn't retaliate, he simply made a bow she'd seen once in the fencing championships on late night sky sports, it said, you've hit me, but I'm not down yet. She decided that perhaps now could be the best time to jump in to keep the peace.  
  
"I'm Miriam Salezer, and you are"  
  
There was sheer appreciation written in those grey eyes as he turned.  
  
"My my, a mannered Muggle"  
  
Defensiveness, she understood that, but it seemed that whatever he had said was meant to be an insult, not to her but the other two who would have missed the sly wink of long lashed eyes that he sent her way. Their hissed intakes of breath were audible but he was still speaking.  
  
"I'm Draco Malfoy, and you, Miriam, must be the reason that Amaris is so very upset"  
  
Then she saw why Harry had been trying to make Hermoine tread carefully, his eyes were deadly dangerous and a sudden flash of vision caught her, fate seemed to surround these people in swirls. He and Amaris seemed almost intertwined, not two people but one.  
  
"She didn't do it on purpose Draco"  
  
That was Harry, trying to calm the tension that was prickling the air like the onset of a thunderstorm, but Draco wasn't listening he was watching her with half lidded eyes, like a poisonous snake caught between striking and letting you move on, and possibly getting you from behind.  
  
Suddenly the tension drained off, his muscles all relaxed and his eyes opened up, it was the sort of control she had always envied, effortless and deep, she suspected he had been on the killing edge a second ago but now he looked as if he was ready to sip sangrias on a Mexican beach.  
  
"Of course not, Amaris is tenser than my mother on family portrait day, one person couldn't have done that. My apologies , I'm just a little, sensitive where Amaris is concerned"  
  
The word 'Ditto' was hovering on the edge of her tongue when Hermoine obviously decided that enough was enough and she was going to have her say.   
  
"You are perhaps the most insensitive person I know, Draco Malfoy, Ama has been eating herself raw these last couple of weeks because her birthday is coming up fast and you weren't here!"  
  
He blinked a few times in seeming confusion before gathering himself together.  
  
"I've missed eight of Amaris's birthdays Hermoine, I'm sure one more wouldn't have bothered her that much"  
  
Harry, it seemed, was doomed to make astute observations.  
  
"You don't know"  
  
Suddenly tension was back in Draco's muscles as if it had never been gone, and his eyes were rapidly turning into boiling lead when a voice spoke from behind them.  
  
"No he doesn't know, and I would like to explain it myself if you don't mind"  
  
Amaris was back, she looked over her shoulder to see her leaning against a man, she met the worried gaze and all but lost herself to an inrush of visions, for they were the eyes from her dreams.  



	9. Explanations, With A View To Affirmation...

To Just Silver, can you really? well dont stop writing if you can't, because then i'd get hate mail, and who knows how i'd cope with that!  
  
  
  
She was as pale as death, and he could see her cheekbones under her skin. Guilt was insidious but anger was burning him up from the inside. What had she been doing to herself while he had been away?   
  
"Well Amaris?"  
  
He sounded like some sort of irate school teacher but he needed to know, it couldn't have been the separation. He had found it painful but he didn't look one step away from an animated corpse, she took a breath and he actually saw her shudder. She was leaning against her Uncle like he was holding her up.  
  
"I thought you were going to miss my birthday"  
  
The glance pleading for help that she sent to Potter sent raw jealousy surging through him, he didn't intend to let it show even when Harry stepped up to explain.  
  
"She needs you to regulate her final change, and she said something about affirmation?"  
  
A memory previously dammed up slammed into his mind when he pushed at her to explain. She had to be around thirteen years old and was standing there naked and coated in blood, in front of her stood a woman whom it seemed she had hated virulently, a flash the woman's throat under her knife and then back to the vision, the woman was speaking.  
  
"You have one more change that will be forced Amaris, on your eighteenth you will hunt in your human form driven by your very blood. I somehow doubt that your father is going to let you affirm a life mate, let alone the boy, don't you?"  
  
A rush of hopelessness from the girl then, and he was back in the present and Amaris was watching him with weary eyes. His anger leapt up and burned, if he had been sorcerer born he suspected the air would be burning but it wasn't so he swore long and low under his breath.  
  
"Amaris, you are, you are, I don't have words for the sort of fool you are"  
  
That brought fury leaping into her eyes and he was glad of it, anything other than that half dead worry, she took two steps forward and he felt the air heat up and then she swayed, he reached out and caught her up to him, thanking god she was as small as she was, and then he turned about to speak and stopped dead. Something was definitely going to happen here, or his name wasn't Malfoy.  
  
  
***  
  
Being slammed into a wall would have been a nicer feeling, fate picked her up by the throat and slammed her backwards and she had to hold it back. Sheer force of habit sealed it in, and the fact that whatever was happening between Draco and Amaris obviously needed to happen now but she couldn't seem to concentrate.  
  
Those eyes had haunted her since the visions had started at puberty, now she could see the entire picture, he was someone's uncle, well thank god, for a horrible moment she had thought he was someone's father. This was the only vision she had longed to come to pass, to meet the owner of those eyes.  
  
And there he was, he was probably old enough to be her father, but the lines that bracketed the corners of his eyes were the only ones present on his face, he didn't look much more than mid thirties. Dark hair tied back in a horse tail, yes there was a family resemblance between him and Ama. But not much, he certainly wasn't as arsenic white as Ama light tanned skin, tall, thank god, and then those eyes.  
  
Back as tar and at the moment filled with worry and looking at Ama, so easy to think of her like that, she was being held against Draco's chest and there, the flash of vision from earlier, they seemed comfortable with that close contact, much more comfortable than she would ever be, but then, they were one person.   
  
She felt more than half recovered when those eyes turned and looked at her, curious, she tilted her head to one side before speaking.  
  
"I'm Miriam Salezar, and you are?"  
  
A pair of eyebrows as dark as his hair moved up for a moment before he spoke.  
  
"I'm Professor Snape, and I would like to know what you're doing on the grounds of the school?"  
  
Hostility, oh well, that was to be expected. She knew from experience that the visions weren't certainties of the future only maybes. But one vision had always recurred in nightmare, letting her know that whatever way she went it was coming to get her, and those eyes had been there, so he had better get used to being at least friendly.  
  
"She's a new Waif and Stray Uncle Serverus"  
  
Amaris looked better curled up in Draco's arms, colour had bloomed for the first time in her cheeks, she also looked relaxed. And she had given her a name, which was more than useful. He looked taken aback.  
  
"She's one of yours then Ama?"  
  
That startled a laugh out of the girl.  
  
"God no, I'd be worried if one of mine turned up here, I think she's one of Dumbledore's pet projects"  
  
A pet project, oh really! but then she saw the twinkle of sardonic amusement in his eyes and realised that sarcasm among these people was rife.  
  
"Well then, hadn't one of you better take her in?"  
  
She saw Harry about to step forward when Draco spoke.  
  
"You can all take her in, Ama and I have to go and talk"  
  
He said it with complete aplomb but the burning silver in his eyes told the world that he had other plans.  
  
Harry was walking up the path with Hermoine almost instantly, so she had turned to follow them when a hand landed on her wrist. Visions shot through her at an alarming rate, if nothing else had this told her how deeply intertwined this man was into her destiny. Fated to meet, how clichéd, and how true!  
  
Her body tried to pull her away, pull backwards, visions were painful and she could only take so much pain, she wasn't athletically enough inclined to want to increase her pain endurance. He seemed to figure out that something was wrong at the same moment that Harry turned back to them.  
  
"Professor!"   
  
He dropped her hand but not before her legs had given out, the floor was coming up to meet her, which was becoming a rather familiar sensation when she was caught, the arms were familiar too, it was her last thought as the visions followed her down into nightmare.  



	10. Prophecy And Prelude

To Just Silver :) I'm sure you're perfectly capable ;) but im not sure im perfectly capable of going without the next part's of your stuff myself :) hope you enjoy this part, and anyone else whos reading along, i hope you enjoy it too   
  
  
  
  
He caught the girl as she crumpled, out of instinct more than anything else, he couldn't see why she'd gone so very pale when he touched her, although the way she'd been watching him had had chills creeping up his spine. The sheer recognition had been frightening.  
  
Harry and Hermoine had made it back up the path in a matter of seconds, but he held on to the girl, she was too tall for Harry, and something in him wanted to hang on to her, he didn't understand why. That was adding to the chills creeping up his spine, he made a fast questioning gesture with his eyebrows, reluctant to speak.  
  
"She's a seer professor"  
  
That was Hermoines addition to the conversation, but it didn't add to his understanding, the only 'seer' of sorts that he'd ever known was Sybil Trelawney and a simple touch had never done that to her. Potter seemed to know what he was thinking, sometimes the talent really irritated him, when it wasn't being useful.  
  
"She's a true seer, she gets visions from contact sometimes. She must have seen a lot from you, not even Ama knocked her out."   
  
A true seer, he knew they cropped up from time to time, but they normally ended up in Hogwarts at eleven, talent willed out, they were eventually found by a wizard or witch. It was rare that they were allowed to function in the real world, and even rarer to see one brought in in the final year.  
  
Holding her firmly, but gently he moved off after the two students towards Hogwarts, while she was unconscious he would take her to the medical wing, Albus could talk to her there. It was a slight irony, this was the second girl he was carrying into the school, and he felt the same odd protectiveness. And that, was what worried him.  
  
***  
  
'Half a league, half a league half a league onwards' that was the quote that was running through her mind as she swam up from the headwaters of unconsciousness. She was flat out, a bed of some sort, her eyes opened, despite protests from her muscles that what she was asking them to do was obscene, dangerous and unnecessary.  
  
When she looked up the first thing she saw was a pair of very blue eyes, twinkling away, there was no vision attached so she allowed herself to relax. Then he spoke.  
  
"Welcome to Hogwarts child"  
  
From anyone else she would have balked at the use of the world child, but this man felt so much older than she was, to her he was a child, it wasn't something of age, it was as if he had simply, lived, so much more than everyone else.  
  
"Would you like to know why I asked Harry to find you and bring you here?"  
  
She shook her head, something in her knew.  
  
"It's a prophecy, and I've been living prophecy since I was thirteen"  
  
A blink and for a moment the twinkle dulled, it wasn't extinguished, and she was certain that this man would see humour at even the darkest moment of his life. He had to be Dumbledore, she could see why he would irritate Ama who it seemed took things much too seriously. The inclination of his head was slow and meant something.  
  
"I was presented with a prophecy that told me that, 'the heir to the serpent, born in fire will save the bastion of learning with her blood and re write history from within the stain' I don't suppose it means anything to you?"  
  
For a moment she considered, it was complicated, she didn't say prophecy's she saw them, the interpretation was different. The blood was easy, a flash of that earlier vision, and born in fire, that she could explain too, the others though, they were beyond her.  
  
"I was born in a fire, my mother died of smoke inhalation and my father died saving me, I think I understand about the blood, I would like access to your library, but the others escape me"  
  
A slight smile twitched at the corners of his mouth moving his beard in a jerk.  
  
"You are the Heir to a man names Salazar Slytherin, his symbol was a serpent, that explains the beginning"  
  
Sudden understanding hit her, she had forgotten it was so commonplace, well to her, but it could explain a lot to people who understood that sort of thing.  
  
"It would explain this too, wouldn't it?"  
  
With a jerk she pulled the sweater over her head, she was wearing a sports bra, so she wasn't much more exposed than the average sunbather in Hyde park but the tattoo showed, glaring at the old man with malevolent eyes.  
  
His intake of breath was noticeable, then he looked at the tattoo again and she was sure she heard a curse leave his lips.  
  
"This complicates things, Serverus"  
  
Only the inflection of his voice told her that he was now speaking to someone else and the man from earlier walked in. The visions clamoured for release but she was holding them in, when he stopped dead, as if he'd been struck.  
  
It seemed that fate had decided to play a part, she could almost see the little figure she always attributed to it out of the corner of her eye smacking him on the back of the head. Then she realised what she was wearing, or what she wasn't. What had seemed perfectly decent a moment ago was suddenly scanty and she crossed her arms across her chest.   
  
"You wanted me Headmaster?"  
  
The twinkle was back in force.  
  
"Why yes, I wanted you to escort Ms Salezar to the library, and give her access to all of the sections"  
  
For a moment his eyes were blank, and then he nodded, deep in the black was an expression almost like concern but he was trying not to let it show.  
  
"And I would also like your niece to instruct her in the basics of sorcery, I think she may have some talent"  
  
That brought real disbelief to his eyes, but again the nod, as if the weight of some great debt kept him silent, she managed to pull her sweater back over her head and climbed out of the bed ignoring Dumbledore's proffered hand.  
  
"I'll be staying here then?"  
  
The headmaster nodded.  
  
"For the foreseeable future, I think so"  
  
She laughed, quietly and without humour.  
  
"Very well then, I had better start looking, and with that she left the sickroom.  
  
***  
  
Dumbledore continued to watch as she and Serverus removed themselves, and then a slight smile crept onto his face. He hoped that her blood sacrifice would not be brought with her life as another's had been so long ago, because the girl had real potential, in more ways than one.   
  



	11. Everything Interesting Seems To Happen I...

To Just Silver, who has proved that Bullying does get results, one Draco covered in Chocolate in your Mailbox.Innosence and Batpig, Sandy who will find out if she keeps reading and Incitatus   
who writes spectacular fiction herself, i'll send Lucius over when im finished with him (Sometime late 2010 ;) ) Thank you all   
  
  
  
Dumbledore continued to watch as she and Serverus removed themselves, and then a slight smile crept onto his face. He hoped that her blood sacrifice would not be brought with her life as another's had been so long ago, because the girl had real potential, in more ways than one.   
  
  
The library had to be the largest she had ever seen, ranks upon ranks of books, not to mention the parchments, scrolls and what looked to be Norse runic tablets in stone. For a moment she was even unconscious of his presence at her back, and then he excused himself to find Ama and she lost her absorption.  
  
She knew what she was looking for, so it should, in theory be easy to find. A brief look at the library information chart had told her that the dark arts were in the section listed as 'RESTRICTED' since they weren't listed anywhere else. The brief glance she had had at the time, that had surprised her, she had thought that her unconsciousness had lasted a few moments. It had lasted almost the entire day.  
  
There, the restricted section was housed in a huge block of ancient wooden shelving, it almost seemed to leer down at her with the promise of forbidden knowledge. Reaching out she gently touched one of the spines, nothing came to her, and then she realised, even those covers that had titles would take her forever to find the book she needed. A quick smile touched her lips, she would simply invite vision.  
  
Lowering her inner shields she reached out and stroked her hands along the spines, working two rows at a time from right to left, nothing came to her, now she was either going to have to get some sort of ladder or kneel. Well kneeling was easier, so she went onto both knees and moved along the spines, a sudden pricking at her fingertips, she stopped. It wasn't a large tome, more a palimpsest, just a few sheets bound together with rawhide strings. She gently tugged it free, 'Oon the nature of blood magik' It seemed to be in middle English, thank god for English literature.  
  
Leaning on a shelf to help herself up she rocked the bookcase. She didn't think anything would fall, since quite a few of the higher books seemed to be held in with chains, but one did, a large black grimoire landed with a thud at her feet. Kneeling she pt her hands forward to pick it up and found the vision she had been looking for.  
  
Something in Hogwarts was working for her, she looked around, no need for people to think she was insane, but…  
  
"Thankyou, whoever, whatever you are"  
  
She had turned away and was moving both book's towards the table when a light breeze touched her face, bringing with it the scent of jasmine after the sun has set. The door was closed, as were the windows, resisting the urge to cross herself she sat down at one of the tables and opening the palimpsest began to read.  
  
***  
***  
  
He found Ama and Draco sitting in one of the alcoves, in the actual school grounds, they weren't doing anything, just sitting. For once they weren't even hanging off of one another, they were just, close. His niece looked up at him and smiled, content in her eyes, she had Rosemund's eyes without his sisters quiet air of serenity, the constant peace didn't flow from Ama, but perhaps it had, once, he would have to ask Draco.  
  
"Dumbledore would like a favour"  
  
One of her eyebrows crooked, now that was a Malfoy expression, but then perhaps that was his own fault, not wanting to get involved, not wanting to bring her up and see everyday his betrayal in her face.   
  
"Oh?"  
  
He had to smile, she was so very cautious of Albus, as if she expected him to turn on her at any moment, of course, he might. He had felt the same for a long while.  
  
"He wants you to, instruct the girl"  
  
Her eyes widened, swirling mists of concealment parting just for a moment to show startled surprise. And then consideration, a plotting scheming plan that something in him knew, and suddenly resented, this girl was not to be used in that way… He shook his head, madness, unmitigated madness.  
  
"She must have talent then, or is it something else?"  
  
A sudden flash, white skin that had never seen the sun and the snakes face staring at him from the shoulder, and the rush of want that had taken him by the chest and shaken the roots of his being.  
  
"She's marked. A snake wrapped all around her upper body"  
  
Insight was in her face, a sudden flush of colour along her cheekbones mimicking the heat that had slanted across his own. And then she smiled, a real rare full smile.  
  
"Well, thank god for that, we were worried that she hadn't turned up, and now she comes answering our prophecy and yours."  
  
"You'll teach her then?"  
  
His own confusion he was determined to keep out of his face, and far away from Ama but she smiled.  
  
"Oh I'll teach her, but I doubt there's much I can, she'll work on instinct alone for a while yet, when she believes it'll come easier"  
  
Draco was glaring at him, then he realised why, they had come out, into the winter cold, to be alone, and possibly to talk and now he was here, being very distracting. He made a slight had gesture, the only one Malfoy Senior had ever taught him when they had been house mates.  
:sorry:  
  
The boy's eyes widened slightly before he nodded.  
  
"I'm going in now, I need to make sure she hasn't collapsed over whatever book she's chosen"  
  
Ama smiled at him in her normal way, and Draco nodded, turning he walked back into the school.  
  
It was odd, he was musing, he had never really been comfortable walking through the front doors, but today he felt it, as if the school had finally welcomed him home. Taking the steps a few at a time he went into the library, he could pick out immediately that someone had been in the restricted section, there was a dent in the hardwood floor were something heavy had fallen.  
  
He was heading towards it when he heard the muffled noise, it turned him away and towards one of the reading nooks, it was probably peeves playing a trick, but even he normally stayed out of the library. Rounding the corner he saw the girl, she had one of the huge tomes open in front of her and she was crying. For one moment his heart stopped, she didn't cry prettily, her eyes were red and her nose was pink but it was the look of utter misery that caught him.  
  
Forgetting about the need she had not to be touched he walked over and wrapped his arms around her, slipping into the high pew like seat so that he could pull her closer. It didn't occur to him how out of character it was for him to offer human comfort to anyone except Ama, he just acted.  
  
"What's wrong Miriam? What is it?"  
  
Keeping his voice a murmur he held onto her while she got her breath, and then she spoke.  
  
"I've got it figured out, all of it, oh damn, I hate crying"  
  
He restrained the laugh at her last comment merely proffering a handkerchief from the inside of one of his sleeves. Then he looked over her shoulder at the book, it was written in old looping handwriting, the ink was a deep sepia tone that set alarm bells ringing, and by the looks of it, it was in Latin.  
  
As he was about to make comment she shifted, pressing back against him as if for comfort, he had to swallow then, need surged through him, twinned with a very real want. Not just the physical he wanted to know, to be close. If he hadn't know that she had been Muggle bred for mostly all of her life, then he would have suspected a love spell.  
  
She turned and looked up at him, eyes a clear green. The same need, want, whatever they wanted to call it was reflected there, but none of his confusion. Love at first sight did not exist, he was sure of it, almost sure, leaning up she placed her lips, very gently against his, he responded without thought.  
  
Perhaps he wasn't sure at all.  
  



	12. Hints of Destiny

To Just Silver, this chapter was a B**** to write, but i got there Ama won't mind, I'll send you an alternatie reality Draco ;) ! Incitatus, BOL with all those meetings, i WILL timeshare Lucius with you :) Sandy, all will become clear, eventually, and he's cute! And Last but not least MoonShadow, *blushes* many thanks, as with Sandy all quesitons will be answered, except Hermoien and Ron, i already did that one, end of True Dragon ! Right Luvvies, read on!  
  
  
  
  
  
Drawing back from the kiss was harder than getting into it, she discovered. She wanted him to kiss her, and keep kissing her, but this was getting a little beyond what she had hoped for. And there was still the spell to discuss.  
  
When she sat back he was watching her, inky eyes deep with something, as if he was caught between elation and despair. It came to her then, that not everyone even in this magic dominated world was as aware of fate as she was. Some of them probably didn't believe in it at all.  
  
There was a lot she could say, but at heart she was still insecure, still a teenager who hadn't known in life, security or content.  
  
"Do you regret that?"  
  
***  
  
He was watching her, those huge green eyes clear as crystal showing that she was sure of how she felt, love at first sight, he would have sworn, on his life, that it was impossible. But now…. He didn't doubt that it was love, he had to stifle a sigh, the ultimate irony, a pureblood ex deatheater falling for someone who couldn't be more Muggle bred. And then her words reached him and he snapped back to the present.  
  
"No!"  
  
He knew that his voice was slightly harsh, but that was how it was, they were probably as neurotic as each other he let an eyebrow drift up. Too long around Lucius and son, he was picking up Malfoy gestures.  
  
"Do you?"  
  
She shook her head, a sort of quiet confidence in her eyes, then a spark of mischief.  
  
"Does that mean I'm stuck with you?"   
  
The corner of his mouth crept up into a smile, she was more like a kitten than a snake, and then an amused throat clearing reached his ears.  
  
"I do hope I'm not interrupting?"  
  
For a moment he closed his eyes in agony and railed at life the universe and everything.  
  
"No Black, you're not interrupting a thing"  
  
He turned to watch Sirius Black enter the library, he moved with a predatory grace that belied his height as if the world was shifting all the laws of physics to make him look good. That was why Sirius had had his share of partners through school, girls and boys alike had flocked to him, and he had never been one to say no, so why was he looking so damn pleased with himself?  
  
"I knew you'd sunk a long way Serverus, but seducing the students, that's lame"  
  
The irony in the words caught them between a joke and an insult but from the studied tension of the woman in his lap she had taken it as the latter.  
  
"I think you'll find it's the other way around, and Harry's in the south tower"  
  
Her voice was deadly, he liked the idea of her seducing him, but then he felt as if she'd been a part of him forever. They'd have to talk about that later, Sirius's face at the moment was much too much of an interesting shade to be ignored. He shot a questioning glance at Miriam and she continued to talk, her voice now sounding airy, it was that tone that people used when they were telling you something you didn't know, and the other person didn't want you to know.  
  
"Oh didn't you know? Harry and Sirius are….  
  
"Miriam!"  
  
Harry was standing in the doorway of the library looking slightly scandalised.  
  
"Is it necessary to spread that around?"  
  
The boy looked more than a little aggrieved, but Sirius almost seemed to have relaxed, as if finding out Harry had told her something relaxed him.  
  
"Then tell him to keep his paws out of my relationship"  
  
He watched as her acerbic words seemed to dawn on Harry, and he noticed where she was sitting, he would have laughed except she began to trace patterns idly up and down his arms and that captured his attention.   
  
She looked up and her eyes were soft, but the edges were still red, then he remembered how he'd gotten into this position in the first place.  
  
"You found the defence spell, what is it?"  
  
***  
  
She knew he'd remember eventually she had just hoped it would be after she'd done the dirty deed. She looked over his shoulder and made shooing motions to Harry who backed out of the door holding Sirius by the hand.  
  
Then she looked back into those heart of darkness eyes and sighed.  
  
"Its simplicity itself Serverus"  
  
His brows quirked in question and she made a gesture towards the giant book lying open on the table, the words written in blood.  
  
"The Sangue Malificarium there tells me I need to speak three words and then slit my wrists and bleed onto the ground."  
  
His eyes went flat, and slightly more than deadly.  
  
"You're not going to do it"  
  
It was more of an order than a statement of concern but she shook her head.  
  
"I have too"  
  
How could she explain to someone who looked at her like that why she had to, well, attempt what looked like suicide. Taking a deep breath she leant back into the cradle of his arms and told him about the visions.  
  
By the time she had finished speaking the candles had lit themselves and were running wax, from the looks of it it was after midnight outside.  
  
"So, you'll do It because its prophecy?"  
  
She nodded and then shook her head.  
  
"Its that, and I'll do it because it feels right to me to do it, because I have to"  
  
He nodded, as if something in the mixed statement appealed to him.  
  
"Fine, but I will be there"  
  
She smiled up at him, that was perfect, that was how she wanted it to be. Her thoughts were about to spill out into positive actions when the candles flickered and went out, and a long unearthly wind blew through the library.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
Her night vision wasn't certain but she was sure that he had paled, and his voice when he spoke was a hollow echo.  
  
"Ama was born at 1.34, her affirmations starting.  
  
Somehow she had an idea that that was a bad thing.  



	13. To Affirm - To Trust

Ahem :) This is the penultimate penultimate part :) it was evil to write so comments would be much appreciated, thanks to Sandy, honestly, have paticience all will be revealed, and to Just Silver, queen of Fanfic that gets told next story, can you wait that long?  
  
  
  
  
  
The first ripples of pain touched her at exactly the moment she had been born. Sitting up straight in bed she felt the sheets slide down her skin, Draco's warmth at her side, but nothing else, just the pain. She couldn't see, couldn't hear it was that bad.  
  
Her body was speaking to her, not in words, but in a series of spasmodic contractions. If giving birth was anything like this, then she would never have children. Then it caught her, this was her birthday, she wasn't going to have to blood hunt because her Drake was here, now all she had to do was find him.  
  
Fumbling past the sheets, she hated, absolutely hated bed coverings, and there, a warm mass.   
  
"Draco"  
  
Tension under her fingers as he woke and felt her pain right through the shields.  
  
"What is it, Amaris, What's wrong?"  
  
There was real fear in his voice, a far cry from the sarcastic front he gave to everyone else. She swallowed and pinned a smile to her face.  
  
"I'm blind Draco, it's part of my affirmation, to trust you to be my eyes while we do what has to be done next"  
  
She had no idea how she knew this, but it was there, at the back of her head, as if life had been waiting for it to be time before that part of her woke up. Now it was all in his hands, the life mating was about trust, love and lust were normally already there, but trust was such a rare quality, so rare and so precious.  
  
***  
  
Trust, he looked at the way she was sitting there leaning back against the bedroom wall, she was sweating and shivering, and at the corners of her mouth here were tiny lines from the pain, but she was sitting, calmly waiting for him to make the first move. In what!  
  
"Amaris, what am I supposed to do?"  
  
A smile of singular sweetness crossed her face, she didn't turn to him, because he realised she wouldn't be able to see him.  
  
"Affirm, my Drake, in some way show that you love me"  
  
The corner of her mouth twisted, as if in sarcastic self assessment  
  
"You don't even have to say it"  
  
That hurt, it slammed straight through their connection and into his heart, she said it as if the words meant something. Words mean nothing, nothing at all, when in your head they only stand for lies. Actions had always counted for more with him.  
  
He shifted and knelt up on the bed, moonlight limning him in shades of silver, touching the same shade from his hair and skin moving so that he straddled her legs and looked into that face that couldn't see him looking.  
  
She was beautiful, probably not to anyone else, there was too much angle to her face, too much slant to her eyes, and too little colour in her all together but she was beautiful in his eyes. There was something in her dark and haunting as a starless night, and she was so precious to him.  
  
Leaning forward he brushed a kiss across her hairline, then across her eyelids, her head shifted so that her throat was exposed and he moved his mouth to the fluttering pulse below her ear.  
  
"I love you, more than life itself"  
  
The words were an almost silent moan against her skin as he shifted himself so that he was lying full out against her. Missionary position with someone as small as she was difficult in the best of times.  
  
As soon as they were joined physically the mental joining slammed in, she was odd in his mind, but then she always had been. She was Amaris, but the dragon almost seemed to lurk like an aura. Her eyes were clear here, no problems seeing. She didn't speak, but then they'd never needed speech.  
  
She put out her hand, cloaked in shadow, all of the things she'd let him see, the old blood and pain, the rape, the murderous and maiming's committed the things worse than both that she had seen and participated in. It was all a part of that hand, scaled like the drakes claw and dripping viscous red. Could he take that hand, trust that part of her with his life, his heart, his soul……..  
  
He took her hand, it closed around him, warm and giving, and then she smiled. Her eyes lightning to a pure lavender flame.  
  
What hit him after that was something like the concussion blast of a megaton bomb and the best climax of his life. It snapped him straight back into his body, and he was looking into Amaris's eyes, they were dazed, no longer it seemed with pain, and the odd aura was gone, accepted into her finally, but it felt, as if they were more connected, he was going to ask …  
  
"We are, more connected, it has to do with the life mating"  
  
That made a little sense, but she could tell him a little more, he cocked his head to one side, visual signals were something he preferred over talking. The predawn gloom didn't seem to bother her, she just smiled, that quirking at the corners of her mouth that he thought was adorable.  
  
"Thankyou, I suspect I wont be in you mind all of the time, that would be intolerable, but I suspect our lovemaking is going to be intense"  
  
A slight smirk crept onto his face, he could cope with that.  
  
"Men"  
  
It was a slightly irritated sigh, but the smile was still there, teasing the corner of her mouth, his night vision had never been this good before…  
  
"Its all part and parcel, as far as I can tell, and you must remember I'm working on instinct, you'll live as long as I do. Longer if I die of natural causes"  
  
He stifled a surge of worry / fear / pain / panic over the fact that he wouldn't want to live longer than she did. But she was still speaking.  
  
"Your senses should be improved, and if you want, when I hunt, you should hunt with me"  
  
She tapped the side of her head and his smile widened, that he would do, and gladly.  
  
"That's it then? No more panic or worry or pain, you've half killed yourself with worry over this?"  
  
He was trying for flippancy, but it got lost in worry and tenderness.  
  
Her smile spread.  
  
"Yes and no, the Affirmation is over, but the night, there's hours of that"  
  
When she shifted on the bed so that she was reaching for him, where he had retreated to to watch her, he saw the bites and bruises he had put on the pale skin of her shoulders.  
  
"Amaris…"  
  
She shook her head.  
  
"Its nothing, you didn't notice these"  
  
Her fingers traced what felt like scratch marks on his back, Amaris had never liked violence in the bedroom, but it seemed that her Affirmation required the draconic side of her nature to have a say, then she kissed him. And clichéd or not, nothing else seemed to have any meaning at all.  



	14. Preparing to Do the Dirty Deed

To Incitatus, who is probably going to end up like me as part of the MAA ( Malfoy Addicts Annonymous) Sandy :) There will be more Snape, this chapter in fact :) And Eternal Haven, a new reader and very brave to have started so near the end.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The light is creeping in, there, little flashes over the horizon, the school looks so peaceful when its asleep. Her train of thought was melodious, she could hear the noise of someone shifting in sleep from the bed across the room.   
  
She wasn't supposed to be here, a question of ethics apparently, but she needed to be close, and well the couch in here faced one of those anomalous dungeon windows. She watched the sun come over the horizon in a splash of ultra violent colour.  
  
Today was the day for it, she could feel it in her bones, all the witnesses were there.   
  
"The serpent's heir, The dragon, The faithful hound, The child who lived, The silvered boy and Dark heart not descending, all must witness the change"   
  
It had come to her just after that blast of chilling wind in the library, she had half passed out and Serverus had put her to bed, and left, which was irritating, she could have done with the company if nothing else. Nightmares of unfinished prophecy had haunted her.  
  
Then she had felt it, just before dawn, it had crashed through her dreams like a tidal wave. She wondered, if the pair in the Gryffindor tower knew what sort of un-harnessed power they had thrown out into the ether. Probably not, they had, from the over tones, other things on their minds.  
  
She sighed, and almost leapt out of her skin when a voice spoke from behind her.  
  
"Such a great sigh kitten?"  
  
Looking over her shoulder, she smiled at the man leaning on the back of the chair. He looked dishevelled from the nights sleep but his hair was almost downy fine escaping around his face, softening the lines there which mirrored Ama's uncannily, or perhaps vice versa. The black eyes were still relaxed from sleep but she could see herself reflected in them, a thousand times, back into infinity. A slight smile tugged up the corner of his mouth, but worry was written there in the lines.  
  
It was strange, she had known those eyes for over five years but the face had become just as familiar, just as dear in the space of twenty or so hours. That was worthy of a sigh.  
  
"I was just thinking, about, well"  
  
She made a slicing motion across her wrists, his eyes sobered suddenly more awake, she could see why people would be wary of this man, there was a darkness there, but then most of the people she had met had had that darkness, not Hermoine and not Dumbledore, but then with them perhaps she wasn't looking in the right places.  
  
"I thought I heard you talking"  
  
Her face flushed.  
  
"I was, just repeating who needs to be there, but I thought you were sleeping"  
  
He reached out a hand and tousled her hair, it was a nice gesture warm and slightly tingly, she gently moved his hand so that he cupped her face, for a moment before he moved it away she could feel the tingles moving though her skin, on each of his cheekbones there was a heightened slash of colour.  
  
"I woke up the moment you entered the room, I've been watching you"  
  
She felt the flush on her face darken until she was sure she was a beetroot shade. It sounded almost intimate, and it was in a way, watching someone when they think that they're unobserved shows a lot that they would sometimes conceal. She wanted to stammer to be a typical teenager, but time was pushing her onwards, towards completion.  
  
"Can you get them for me?"  
  
He arched an eyebrow.  
  
"Sirius Black, and Harry, Ama and Draco, you have to be there, of course, and Dumbledore, as the official head of the school"  
  
He nodded, no questions asked, he seemed to understand that it was a question of necessity. As he started to rise to see to it she stopped him with an outstretched hand.  
  
"You'll need to be there to, so a robe of some sort would be handy"  
  
The colour darkened across his cheekbones and he nodded, turning away, she smiled, boxer shorts, even in the Wizarding world some things didn't change. Then he was gone, and she was alone with her thoughts, and they weren't friendly.  
  
***  
  
He watched as Serverus walked from the room dressed as usual in dark black robes, but his face was not its normal forbidding cast, it was, thoughtful. The girl that had been snuggled in his lap obviously had something to do with it.  
  
"Serverus"  
  
It was less than a whisper but the other man turned slightly to attend, his hearing had always been acute, probably made him a good teacher, that, his eyes though were flat and unfriendly, although according to Harry he was a good sort of person once you got to know him. That he didn't quite believe.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
Nice, friendly, welcoming none of those words described the layer of ice chilling on the top of that reply, however there was a glimmer of something at the back of those eyes.  
  
"Nothing, just wondering what you were doing, at around a quarter past seven in the morning wandering the halls"  
  
That glimmer was still there, but now there was slight amusement twisting the corner of his mouth.   
  
"Oh I have my reasons, but for now I'm looking for a few people, you included"  
  
That sparked off a wildfire of curiosity, he had never been as openly curious as Remus and James but he could never have been a marauder without some of that spark.  
  
"Oh really, I'll just tag along then shall I?"  
  
He watched as the other man shook his head, that smile curving his lips still more.  
  
"No, you could do me a favour though, and bring Dumbledore to the walled garden in a few minutes"  
  
Phrased that way, there was no real polite way he could say no, he shook his head slightly, he should have known that an ex Slytherin could get him out of the way faster than a rabbit down a greased hole.  
  
Watching as Serverus walked away he shook his head, he hoped that he didn't get to Harry too fast, the poor boy was still fast asleep, a slight grin crept onto his face. Exhaustion…… Shaking his head he trotted down the corridor, he would have moved faster as a dog but he preferred being a human being, so long in Azkaban as an animal, to walk upright as a man was something of a privilege.   
  
The school it appeared had shifted itself to give him easy access to Dumbledore's office, it was good like that. He smiled at the portrait on the wall, a beautiful thing but then all the portraits were, it smiled back at him and he knocked twice, respectfully on the door behind the gargoyle.  
  
Dumbledore answered, he looked fresh and neat as a pin in a sort of absentminded way, his glasses were on his nose but his eyes were serious, he looked as if he could see right through Sirius and out the other side. A slight tremor went up his spine before a twinkle started in Dubledore's eyes.  
  
"Yes Sirius?"  
  
"Serverus sent me, he said that we had to go to the walled garden sir"  
  
Sir, it was amazing that this man still got sir's out of him as if he was still the overawed eleven year old that had first come here. Something ominous however had to be happening, trust Serverus to send him with the news, because the headmaster was looking at the floor and the expression on his face was caught somewhere between sadness and hope.  
  
"Its going to happen now hmmm, ah well, she knows best I suspect, or at least I hope, it went so horribly wrong before…"  
  
His voice tailed off and he looked up.  
  
"Yes Sirius, we'll have to get a move on"  
  
Dumbledore stepped out of the door ad into the corridor.  
  
"In this we cannot afford to be late"  



	15. In Blood, Faith, and Tears

AHAHAHAHAHAH :) I FINISHED IT !!!!! :) Which actually was more than a little bit of a miracle, this many chapters out of a projected nine! :P I owe it to the fact that Just Silver has, by reviewing all the way thorugh made me feel too guilty to stop writing i love you babe, your the best! Sandy, if i could package Snape up and send him to you i would :) And Incitatus your constant supply of short and cryptic reviews has been a delight, as has writing with you, your up to beta the next one so get those brain cells ready!!! Yes you all heard correctly, theres a third one, which should be the final one, of course if you hate this.............   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Ama had come in to wake him up as the others were afraid of what they would find, he had to hide a light smile. But Ama's face was worried, there was serenity all around her like an aura, but she was worried.  
  
"Uncle Serverus is on edge, I wonder what's going on"  
  
She didn't know, that was a bad thing, he relied on Ama's normal attitude of 'I know everything' to help him get through times like this, since it was guaranteed that Hermoine wouldn't, she hadn't been woken so it seemed like she wasn't invited.  
  
They were walking down a staircase, Draco, according to Ama's best information was waiting for them by the main entrance. Yes, there he was, they cleared the high back staircase that he could have sworn wasn't there last night and Draco was standing in a patch of sunlight. He wasn't in black today, he was in robes of a seep silver grey and he looked like a silver statue in the early morning glow.  
  
It was amazing after the way they had both looked yesterday, he could almost see the vitality and the health, Draco turned and he almost backed a step away. The smile gracing the other boys face was as if he'd been waiting for them for hours and was exceedingly glad they were back.  
  
"About time Amaris, what were you doing, dressing him?"  
  
He heard Ama laugh, a real laugh like raindrops over rose petals, he'd never heard it before so it deserved the rare and beautiful image he gave to it.   
  
"No, waking him up, I don't know what he was up to, but it certainly tired him out"  
  
For a moment he met Draco's eyes, still and deep as the mercury they had used in potions before the holidays, and then a slight smile warmed them.  
  
"Well that's two of us then, out we go?"  
  
He watched Ama nod and take Draco's arm, he followed them out into the winter sunlight.  
  
***  
  
The walled garden was a tiny haven of tranquillity, she hadn't known how it was that she knew it was there only that it was. The winter snows hadn't touched it, it was a perfect English summer inside, roses climbing the walls, a mass of conflicting colours made harmonised by nature, jasmine starry white mixed in with the deep green of holly bushes, waiting for the night air to release their perfume. Lavender running riot through the borders, it was a haven for the senses.  
  
The others would be here soon, she looked at the robe she had found laid out across her bed this morning, whatever force it was that animated Hogwarts was definitely being helpful. It wasn't so much a robe in the style that the others around her seemed to wear, it was a shift, and it shimmered in a light green colour woven through with a silvery grey. It also exposed the head of the tattoo.  
  
The knife that had been with the robes was a work of art, the handle was slender, a dragon worked in gold, the scales edged with onyx, the eye diamond and sapphire. Runes marched down the blade, she had absolutely no idea what the things meant but the thing was hers, for today, she had felt the warmth as she had picked it up, the welcome.  
  
She knelt down and held the dagger, the word knife just didn't cut it, point up so that it caught the sunlight, and almost started the ceremony earlier than she had planned when Serverus spoke from behind her.  
  
"Where did you get. That."  
  
His voice as he said that was full of a sort of soft self loathing and guilt, she looked over her shoulder and saw his eyes riveted to the dagger.  
  
"You know what it is then?"  
  
Watching his face she saw the indecision in his eyes before he answered.  
  
"Yes, its an heirloom, and not a well fated one"  
  
The question, who's was bubbling on her lips when the others arrived.  
  
"Miriam?"  
  
That was Harry, but Ama cut straight across it all to the point.  
  
"Why are we here?"  
  
She could only shrug, that was one thing she didn't know, she knew why Serverus had to be there, but the others were, well, just necessary.  
  
"It's to keep the spell stable, something the last person who attempted it forgot"   
  
Dumbledore entered through a tiny gap between two hedges, she knew that Sirius was with him, and had headed to Harry's side as soon as he had managed to enter, but her eyes were riveted on the sombre blue of Dumbledore's. The visions were quiescent, but there was so much life around him, so very much time.  
  
He looked down at the dagger in her hand, the platinum blade caught the sunlight the runes patches of darkness, she watched his chest rise and fall in a sigh.  
  
"That blade is a true gift, I haven't seen it for years"  
  
Her curiosity was screaming for her to ask about it, what it was, but her prescience kicked in at that moment with an almost hideously loud scream of NOW. DO IT. NOW. She blinked and then spoke.  
  
"Serverus, could you come here please"  
  
She sounded absent minded even to herself but he knelt at her side, she looked up and found those concerned eyes on her, those eyes that had started all of this a few days ago, years ago, a lifetime before. She lowered her voice to a whisper, barely heard over the warm breeze that was now stirring the grass.  
  
"Think hard about the blood stopping when its flowing, otherwise I haven't got a chance in hell, the spell will work but I wont be around to see it. Positive thinking and all that jazz"  
  
He simply nodded and she smiled at him, even the smile was absent, she felt absent all over, but that didn't matter. Reaching out with her right hand she took the dagger from the ground and placed it against her knees facing upwards, then she met Dumbledore's eyes.  
  
"No interference, I know what I'm doing"  
  
The headmasters eyes nodded, But he didn't, he merely turned to the others.  
  
"You heard her my children, let her get on with it"  
  
There were questions in all of their faces but she had to ignore them, her hair, free of the braid cascaded towards the ground as she looked up into the clear blue gas flame sky. She could feel the blade nestled there as if it was warm and alive, how she was going to do this, she pushed those thoughts away, this was like an exam, self confidence was everything.  
  
"Patroncinor"  
  
Her voice was no more than a whisper but the garden seemed to repeat it back, building it until she could almost see the sound golden against the air. From the quiet murmuring in the background she wasn't the only one, there now, she placed the insides of her wrists against the knife, she didn't want to die so she was going to cut across her wrists instead of down the veins.  
  
Ah, the pain hit like liquid nitrogen, the edges were sharp. She could feel the blood running down her wrists in a burning tide, backwards from ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.  
  
"Cruento"  
  
Dark bloody overtones added to the aura that permeates that garden and Serverus's hands clasped around her wrists, the ragged edges catching against his skin are beyond painful but there is still something else to come before she could look up and reassure him. She knows it will happen, it has so many times in dreams.  
  
"I don't think this exercise will be going any further"  
  
She didn't know the voice but it was obvious that someone, Draco, and possible Serverus did, the men were masked and robed which at any other time would have had an entire stack of 'hooded hoard's' jokes running through her mind, but now she was fuzzy, blood loss can do that to a person.  
  
The man at the front was raising a wand, she could see where the point vector would be, straight at her chest but she couldn't move, she felt as if the spell had frozen her solid, she heard his murmured spell and her lips unlocked to say the final word of command.   
  
"Umbra"  
  
The spell the man had cast was loosed and travelling towards her, the world almost seemed to be in slow motion when she heard a voice, clear as a bell ring across the garden.  
  
"No!"  
  
Then a figure from out of nowhere caught the bolt meant for her, sending her flying. Time speeded up again, she felt the completed protection spell backlash and throw three of the four robed figures off of the Hogwarts grounds, and into that blank space that she had felt them step out of, the one who had shot at her remained. Her wrists healed, what should have taken weeks and months happening in a span of seconds, but all attention was fixed on the girl who lay at the robed man's feet.   
  
Red hair like the blood that had decorated the grass splashed outwards, pale fingers still stretched in denial tangled in it, her robes the same flawed shadow colour of the space under the archway were spread around her.  
  
The hooded and masked man made something that sounded like a broken sound of denial, almost at the same moment that Serverus spoke under his breath.  
  
"It can't be her she's dead"  
  
Dumbledore was staring, but a twinkle seemed to have reappeared miraculously in his eyes, she heard his final words even as she fainted.  
  
"Things are not always as they seem, especially not here."  



End file.
